Project team

Stefania Vicari is a Professor in Digital Media and Society at Loughborough University (UK). Her research focuses on digital participation and social change, especially in the context of lived experiences of health and illness. She recently led Previvorship in the Platform Society, a three year project funded by the Leverhulme Trust exploring how hereditary cancer is represented and experienced on and through social media. She has written extensively on online discourses around rare and hereditary health conditions and is author of Digital Media and Participatory Cultures of Health and Illness (Routledge, 2022). 

Hannah Ditchfield is a Research Associate in the department of Communication and Media at Loughborough University (UK) where she researches digital communication on social media platforms. She has previously worked with Professor Vicari on Previvorship in the Platform Society, where she interviewed BRCA and Lynch syndrome genetic mutation carriers about their experiences of using (or not using) social media in relation to their conditions. Hannah is particularly interested in representations of women’s health on social media and how these intersect with platform infrastructures. She is a member of the Women’s Health Visibility Alliance.  

Malgorzata Iwaniec-Thompson is a Research Associate in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield (UK). Her work sits at the crossroads of science communication and education. Her work identifies the key themes, concerns, and narratives that emerge in digital spaces through applying a mixed methods approach. Before joining NeGen-SOS, she examined the evolving landscape of science reporting, focusing on misinformation, scientific retractions and how journalists navigate scientific uncertainty in their efforts to report accurately. Beyond research, Malgorzata lectures at the University of Huddersfield, where she teaches research methods and supports students in building strong research literacy skills.  

Mike Thelwall is a Professor of Data Science at the University of Sheffield (UK).  He researches sentiment analysis, science of science, and social web analysis methods. He has created software and methods for analysing Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok from a quantitative social science perspective. His main current book is Word association thematic analysis: A social media text exploration strategy. He sits on eight editorial boards, including Journal of Data and Information Science.    

Kate Weiner is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sheffield (UK). Kate works at the intersection of sociology of health and illness and social studies of science and technology.  She has an enduring interest in how people understand health and illness, in everyday health practices, and how these intersect with health care provision. She has undertaken research in the areas of genetics, patient organisations, pharmaceuticals, functional foods and self-monitoring, often in relation to heart disease. Kate brings experience of qualitative methods, and particularly interviewing and creative methods, to the project.